 A couple of things. Just with the injuries and where we're at. So Chuma at some point, Doga will go on IR. So as you guys know, the slot that, you know, hopefully we're close to getting Matt Hennessy back. So he'll be out any continued practice. He'll be out there today. Brought Jared Bernhardt back. He started his window. So we'd better back up practice my hard to return. And then, technically, Justin Schaefer too, even though he'll go to the practice squad, still takes one of those spots. So we had two spots. Those guys are where they're at. Comfortable enough, further than enough long. And their rehab that we can get a look and assess them is the last two weeks. So that's kind of where we're at there. And then at practice today, we're still pretty healthy. Elijah Wilkinson, he'll be on the end of the report, dealing with the medical thing that came up with the CAF after I talked to you guys on Monday. We'll just have to monitor as the week goes on. But he won't be practicing today. Is that what they did in all to the need? Not technically, and yet I don't want to tell you anything wrong. But it's something that we're monitoring. It wasn't something that didn't show up right away. But I just wanted to put context to that because on Monday, the information as I had when I got up here or wherever I was back there. So when he pops up with the injury board, just trying to provide context. Just to actually start, I mean, JJ Watt announces he's retiring. You saw him just a few times, I would imagine, on your career. He's got a great career. Obviously, the race all Sunday night, he made some plays in critical moments. He had a hall of fame career. He had a lot of good battles that our guys had against him when I was in Tennessee for a long time. And I guess our guys are looking forward to the challenge of going against him on Sunday. What do you remember most about going against him? Is there a specific plan that stands out for a moment? I mean, it was a lot of back and forth over the years. Down years in Tennessee, he was a nightmare. So we came to things at the end of it. Those guys, there were some great battles. And he was certainly a challenge and found different ways to try to limit them because he could wreck the game. A lot of chips on his way, a lot of different things. Sure, he has his own version of him, but he's a great player. And obviously, he's been part of the NFL for the last decade. Yeah, Coach Wade was just on the radio talking about how they could do so many different things with him because he was a smart player, could go to pass, play the run on his way, go inside, outside. With that versatility of part of his game that people appreciated. Yeah, I mean, that middle part of the decade, I don't know, a lot of great players come to the league. And then you're certainly at the top of one of the biggest challenges the game playing against. That's for damn sure, because he could do it all. Effect the run, affect the pass, game-changing plays, whether he hit the quarterback or tipped the ball. He made a lot of them. He made a good number of plays Sunday night, too. Coach Cliff was trying to weigh McCoy if he can get him back health-wise, and trace McSourly on what they got to do at quarterback. Yeah, as well as the modern day of the week, they're two different players. Colt's been around for a while, very smart player, very efficient passer. Trace, the way they use them, they were effective. Some things I'm sure, depending on what they decide to do, there's your face and Colt, certain things we've got to make sure you're prepared for. Then Trace, some of the stuff that we've seen, that I'm sure they'll throw at us at some point he led. Some of the quarterback run stuff, the four-by-one stuff you see as he's training around the league that we've got to be ready for. Because he can certainly, McSourly can keep the ball and hurt you that way, too. Actually, Felipe's still in protocol. He's in protocol, yeah. So yeah, just no different than it was Monday. Yeah, and Mike, you've been here for two years and how we address that. So monitor that the week, but more likely than not, he won't be ready for Sunday. More globally, because everything is going on again, is to how do you approach your players to talk to them about self-reporting? Since that, it seems like he did that on Monday and having those conversations. Mike, you know what? I know that the issue with, you know, it's obviously a conversation out there for the league and I just, not comfortable, commenting on anybody else's situation because I don't know all the variables to it. I just know how we handle things, not that, and I don't want to come off sounding like, oh, we've got the answers. Nobody's got all the answers on anything. If you do, you're very delusional and arrogant. But just in how we try to handle things with our own players, you know, we have a lot of conversations, our medical staff, performance staff does a great job with that. As every team, you take it very serious and certainly hear safety of the player first and how it affects the team. But their individual safety and health is priority number one and that's usually been the case, people I've been around. Yeah, I just wasn't sure how those, I meant specifically with that, it's how you approach those conversations, whether that's like, you type that conversation, like they wanna camp. You know, what we do when we, you know, how we address our players, certain, all kind of different issues. You know, those things remain private, but certainly acknowledge a lot of things that come up that can, you know, not just injuries, but things that maybe come up off the field. There's a lot of things that are going on and as you guys know, life outside of here too. So those are, there's a lot of conversation we have. You know, we care deeply about the individual and what's a tough profession. As you guys know, but yeah, that'll never change as long as I'm here. The position switch moving Avery to the offensive side. How do you think that he's done there? He's been seemingly productive. He's been productive, yeah. He's a versatile player. He's done a nice job and the punt returns this year. You know, he's been a big part of our team and his role continues to expand and he's a fun player to work with and coach. I still think it's pretty impressive that a guy can do that, the role he was forced into last year, playing DB and playing the nickel spot, you know, being a returner, making the switch to offense. He's been ready to go if we had gotten down, got close to one game, having to finish it at corner. You know, I think Avery's had a pretty damn good season. Oh yeah, coach, just revisiting the Desmond and Drake, you know, connection. You know, what's the ceiling there? It looks like they've got some going here, Sergeant Erlio. I hope it continues. I mean, that's when you've got young players and certainly we've invested a lot in Drake. You know, it's good to see that pay off. I mean, there's certain chemistry that naturally happens between quarterbacks and receivers or tight ends. And you know, the last couple of weeks, I think you've seen that. I think a part of Drake's game is that he's continued to grow some things he's worked through, you know, as painful as they've been to him. And you know, man, you know, the effect of the game. I mean, I've seen a lot of young guys that they can't recover from that. And I think that's what's been unique about Drake to go in there and, yeah, made a mistake. You know, what happened, Marlon got him again. And you know, obviously he took the sleeves off and went out there and he's not, you know, he doesn't sit there and hide from it. Where you see some guys and then they want the ball to come their way. Drake's the opposite, goes out and attacks and they will continue to get better. And same with Desmond, but it is nice to see that chemistry pay off. How do you, I saw that when I kept watching it. I don't know what else he could do because Marlon winds up and gets a full punch in there. And that's gonna be hard to hold that. Yeah, there's a lot of different things that we, yeah, we, ball security, I mean, there's a lot of things that too, you know, guys, your bodies are both different. Some guys are long levered and they thought the sleeves were an issue. The way you hold the pressure points you put on the football, you're going through traffic. Certainly, you know, lesson learned from New Orleans and it was different, but the same result, right? In the Evans where he got them in New Orleans. And then Marlon was like clinic, peanut tillman. I mean, it was a haymaker. You're in the ring, that's a punch gonna hurt. But again, it's our job to make sure that we take care of the football. I did appreciate it. I mean, tried to find a solution. I thought, well, whether it was a placebo effect or not, I thought the rest of the game, I mean, he went back inside and it wasn't an issue. When you're talking about Drake, when you say like that it's unique to recover from something like that. And this is a guy who wants the ball to come this way. Is that something that you can find out about someone even during like the pre-job process? Or is that only something you can learn about someone in the heat of the moment? What you try to study and see them and adverse situations. I mean, that's a lot of things that come up. You find out a lot about people, players, coaches. Through that process, you're trying to evaluate that. That's, you know, we have a great scouting staff and trying to collect all the information. And then a lot of times people say a lot of things in the interviews, I'm gonna tell you what you wanna hear and whatever little cameo they're doing. They're gonna have all the right buzzwords, but you just look at them over the long haul and then watch how he reacts. And certainly been pleased with that. There's some things for all of us we need to improve, but I do appreciate his mindset because some people, they may say, hey, you know, I want the ball and then you can tell by their play and the way they're playing, they really may not want the ball. You see it happen a lot of sports too. They're like, I hope the ball doesn't come my way, but he's got an aggressive mindset. He's fun to coach. So continue to see improvement and we're really excited about it. Switching over to the defense real quick. Big picture with this defense. What do you kind of feel is the key to their development in the last month and a half in regards to kind of those critical down situations? And when you see them in practice, what do you kind of see from that group in the steps that they've made? Yeah, a lot of it comes down to situational awareness in terms of I call four point swings, certainly down the red zone. You know, we're, again, trying not to give up explosives. You know, those are things that have happened at times this year that I thought we'd done a decent job. New Orleans got us, you know, Baltimore did, but being able to rally, they make a play, which happens sometimes, especially one-on-one. It's the NFL, sometimes it's good on good. You know, with AJ, he gets Andrews a couple of times. You get him a one fade. So they get in the scoring position to be able to bow up no different than Drake. You make a mistake to bow up and get a play every down. And certainly that's kept us in some games by making them kick field goals. The next step is like we got areas to improve. We always do, you know, third down where you're not giving up points and all that stuff. But that's where it's paid off, certainly the last month, we've done a better job situational when they've gotten there and making them have to kick field goals when they have gotten down there, and which has given us a chance to come back. We need to start faster. There's a lot of things that we'll continue to work on, find solutions, clean up. We know that. Andrew, I'm sure there's a spot that really going into the season, you guys really tried to renovate. I'll use to renovate that room, change up. How do you feel like, how do you evaluate what you've seen from that group this year? Yeah, there's a lot of things. And it's just, we know, continue, we gotta find ways to pressure the quarterback. And it's not just on the times the edge, it's the coordinated rush inside too. There's a lot that goes into it. You know, when you, as you're going through rush plans, how you're trying to attack certain quarterbacks, it all goes into it. We know we gotta be more productive there. But the growth of some of those young guys and the things that they've seen from, you know, our AK and the Angelo, and then Zo, you know, taking on a different role coming in here. But to get it to, in my opinion, to have a really top flight, pass rush, I mean, there's a lot of coordinated things and it's not just outside, it's inside out too. And whether you're a pressure team and the backers or guys that can rush the quarterback to create matchups, to create protection issues up front, there's a lot of things that go on at the line of scrimmage. Pre-snap, that could affect the quarterback and we gotta continue to develop and find solutions there. But those young guys, yeah, you'd love for a guy to come out as a rookie and have 15 sacks. It usually doesn't happen when there's been cases, but we feel good about their development. We know we gotta continue to improve and it's all across the board. In terms of TQ, obviously you guys are having rush issues before he got hurt, but how much has he actually done this year next? I was in your play, how much did he maybe help this year both with some of those coordinated rushing me and also with maybe taking attention away from gravy? Yeah, that's a good question. Yeah, I think sometimes the effect you have, it depends again what you wanna do, but if you're in traditional four man rush, where's the center gonna slide? Those are the games we're trying to match up, so if you aren't getting the slide to here, you're gonna be one-on-one. And maybe it's not just the right way, you love to win quick, it usually ends up in sacks or they throw it away or you're hitting the QB pressures, but the way he's able to collapse the pocket sometimes, which allows you to get him on the edge. And I thought TQ had made a lot of strides there. He's a powerful player. And when you're young and you're going through it, Mike, it's, you know, TQ, he was having a huge impact on us, regardless, and I think I've said that a bunch about, it's not just the stats, the impact he has. Even going back to Kyle, Kyle is rookie here. Yeah, you know, like I said, I mean, whatever he had, you know, 1,000 yards and makes the pro bowl and we're a different offense than you had a veteran quarterback and not, you know, passer and as you're going through it and then this year, certainly we, I kept saying he had the impact he had on winning, but I think the one thing that's not lost on us and the value of Kyle and TQ both impacted on this team and it's our job, nobody cares about your problems. Everybody else has injuries, you go around the board, but those are the things, it's not just me spitting cliches to try to wise this number down or why didn't have this many sacks or whatever it is. There is an impact on winning and those guys were certainly having an impact and that's what happens when you have good players and you try to find solutions, but certainly both of those guys have been missed. And what areas have you seen Richie Grant have like the most growth in from year one to year two? A lot of things, a lot of things come up, you know, recognizing certain rock combinations. I mean, a lot of that comes about with reps and experiences, there's so much stuff that happens pre snap now and things that you want to, you know, you put on the safeties. I mean, those guys a lot of times they're like quarterbacks back there. Certainly a guy, you know, I've got a ton of respect for Buddha Baker and impact he has on that defense and you just, when you watch the film you can tell the guys that are out there, that they are the quarterbacks. You could hear them certainly on the sideline but when you're watching film, guys that look like they're the calming presence are getting in there, they're smart as hell, like really veteran quarterbacks are not manipulating them like they do some other guys. So there's a lot of things Richie and I've seen a lot of year two growth. Him, you know, making plays on the ball, how physical he is in the line of scrimmage, a lot of that stuff. So I've been pleased, you know, with his growth as well. Yeah, Buddha Baker's gonna be out but Isaiah Simmons, how are they trying to unique player? They got a lot of speed he led. I think Vance Joseph does a good job. They did, they give you a multiple looks because they got a lot of hybrid players which is where those leagues kind of going anyways. Just when we talked about that, that the talent pool coming out and the defense is the way the game's played in space growing up from high school to college. So you get a guy like Isaiah Simmons, Steven Collins, those are long range of guys that can run and they can put them in the slot and they play the spot. You saw Carolina mid part of the decade where Shaq Thompson was out there they could play like a four, three defense and not necessarily go small because he was fast enough to play that in certain looks, you certainly see that with Simmons. And then you see him on the line of scrimmage and he plays a huge role for him in multiple roles and he covers a lot of ground. Same thing with Dave and Collins that's another big, rangy guy that can run multiple player form on the line of scrimmage, traditional stack linebacker, they can create matchups on the line and third down when they're dropping closed windows because not only they had a length, they got speed. And that's a lot of things about speed and the windows closing. So those guys do a really nice job using them. And back to the pass rush, just wanna make sure I'm not, I mean, we got the sacks, but or the hits and the hurries and the knockdown, the kind of pass rush quotient or they make that maybe a little bit better than the flat number on the sacks is or they cause enough chaos back there is basically what. Yeah, I mean, I think every thing you ask every coach, everybody wants more. Yeah, I mean, that's, I guess we're all greedy, you know, when you're in this industry, ultimately you're trying to win and trying to find ways to improve if you don't, that's not a good sign. So yeah, they give you multiple looks. Obviously they can move water around and you're gonna have to account for him on every play. And but Simmons and Collins and those guys, they can move around. You know, are they a rusher? You know, that's the game. You see it all over the league. These odd structures on third down, overloads on one side, hybrid linebackers come up where they basically had all three technique, rusher in certain packages, they're dropping, you know, that's setting the picks up. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that happens and that's why going back to a lot of our guys where I think like a young center like Drew, I don't think people realize all the stuff that's put on their plate, pre snap, even the young quarterbacks, those are the games on third down that you ultimately will define you in those situational football. And so that's what the fun part of coaching, that's the respect I have for the opponents. And they certainly got a lot of guys that can create those matchups for you, D-Led. I think it was this time last year that Dean said, I'm paraphrasing that just that upfront with the past freshers, they need more guys that can just win one-on-one matchups, the four man rush, get in there and attack. Do you feel like there are more guys who have the talent to do that, whether they're still developing or not? We start to see some guys who can do that as you continue to build up this past rush. You mean just for us, the leaders just around the league? Yeah, no. Yeah, I mean, continue to work on that. When you get to that point, when you can win with four man rush, it's like being able to stop the run and recover too. Right, if you can stop it too high, you're gonna be pretty damn good. That means you upfront, the way that maybe you attack, whether you're a stunt team or you're trying to two-gap in the shell coverage, you're pretty damn good. If you can win with four, now, I mean, that's a game changer. And there's very few teams that can do that. The ones that are right now, like how multiple guys they throw at you, there's probably a pretty good correlation when you look at Buffalo, when you look at San Francisco, there's others that I don't wanna mean anything out or whatever, but it allows you to, at least it's just a numbers game. Now, you've got seven in coverage in the quarterback, done even have probably two seconds to take his chop and get the ball out. Like, those are the things when you get in there and you're really, you're cooking then. It doesn't mean that you can't find other solutions and that's certainly what our job is to try, but I mean, you just historically, you go back and you look at that 0-7 Giants team. When I was in Washington, we were a playoff team. We were a team that needed a pressure and we were pretty damn good defense. I don't remember where top five, top 10 give or take, I can't remember up top of my head, but I remember playing the Giants late in the year and they had that four-man rush. It was a nightmare, straight hand, tuck inside, gotta leave him out, I can picture him. I'm in Troy State. Yeah, and different guys they threw at him in it. Yeah, and they were able to get there with four. Yes, and we saw that late in the year and certainly saw in the playoffs and that was a lot of them made that run. Those are the examples I give you. I just, everybody's constantly working to find that. We're working to develop our own guys and that's certainly be a huge point of emphasis in this office. Going back to the current beginning lesson, bring back Fitzpatrick last week, bring back Bernhardt this week, bring back Schaefer. How much of that might be able to play him versus, these are young guys that can maybe use the three-week window and the two-week window. That's the balance. Yeah, that's the balance. We'll see how it looks with Fitz. He's been out for a long time and you see him and a lot of it is with the game plan where your health is at those spots. Everybody strategically, it'd be interesting to go back and study it, how people used it. Certainly, if you're gonna continue to play, if you got guys that you're saying, hey, maybe back and if you're gonna go and play in the post-season, you need to hold on to a spot or two, but where we are right now, they're further along in their rehab, far enough along in the rehab that you feel good about getting back on the field to assess them, especially they're young and the practice reps are valuable. And then if they can either to play or we think they're ready to play, you gotta make a corresponding move and we would do that. We just gotta assess, especially with Schaefer, as I was doing the practice squad and then with Bernie, so I'm gonna say Bernie in a while, so our dog will be back out there.